This invention deals generally with animal husbandry and more specifically with a remote controlled crossover gate within a dairy barn.
Most people not directly involved with agriculture do not realize the complexity involved in some aspects of agriculture. For example, in the dairy industry, barns are laid out to facilitate both the free movement of the cows and the rapid distribution of feed to them. A typical dairy barn is now laid out with an access aisle between two rows of stalls, with the feed station for each stall located adjacent to the aisle. This permits the caretaker of the cows to move along the aisle and place feed into each stall. This action usually is performed from a tractor-pulled wagon which is loaded with feed and is driven along the aisle. It is also frequently necessary to move a tractor along the aisle for other reasons, such as pushing feed back into the feeding area.
Another feature of such barns is the inclusion of crossover gates along the aisle. Such gates are swung across the aisle to permit the cows to roam freely across the aisle and throughout the barn without actually having access to the aisle. However, such access gates block the progress of the feed wagon along the aisle and must be opened and closed by the tractor operator. Essentially, this means the operator must leave the tractor as he approaches every gate, open the gate, move the tractor and wagon beyond the gate area, and then walk back to close the gate if that is necessary. This action must be performed at every gate area in the bam, and it is clearly a time consuming operation.
It would be very helpful and efficient to provide a means for opening and closing crossover gates in a barn without requiring the caretaker to dismount from the tractor each time a gate must be opened or closed.
The present invention is a crossover gate which is remote controlled to permit anyone carrying a portable remote control to open or close the aisle crossover gates from a remote location, whether on or off a tractor. Although for the typical use of the invention, the gates are arranged to form two adjacent crossover paths, the basic unit of the invention is a configuration which forms a single crossover path. This basic unit is constructed with support poles at the four corners of the crossover path, with a pair of posts on each side of the access aisle, and with each pair of posts aligned with the permanent barrier along the aisle which prevents animals from entering the aisle from that side. The pair of posts on each side of the aisle is separated by a distance which determines the width of the crossover path.
Sections of the gates which rotate to either close off the access aisle or define the crossover path are hung from each of the comer support posts. Each gate is formed of two sections, and each section rotates approximately 90 degrees and forms half of either a gate across the access aisle or a gate parallel to the aisle. The gate sections each have end sections which include horizontally extending loops so that the loops on the two gate sections which face each other to form a whole gate actually overlap and the location of the junction of the two sections is not critical. In order for the gate sections to overlap without interfering, the gate section hung from any particular corner post is configured with its horizontal end loops vertically offset from the horizontal end loops on the two gate sections with which its loops interact.
This results in the gate sections which are on opposite corners of the four post configuration having similarly placed extending loops, so that the gate sections hung on two opposite corners of the post configuration have a set of loops which are higher than the loops on the gate sections hung from the other opposite corners.
The non-interfering extending loop configuration also eliminates the requirement that the distance across the access aisle be the same as the width of the aisle. Since the gate sections overlap without interference, the amount of overlap can vary significantly between the position when a gate is across the aisle and when it is parallel to the aisle, so, for instance, the overlap when the gates are parallel to the aisle can be much less than the overlap when the gates are across the aisle.
A single motor is used to swing all four gates of the invention, and this motor and its control are the types which are typically installed in overhead garage door openers. Such motors are typically controlled by a battery operated remote control, so they fulfill all the requirements of the invention. Furthermore, such motors can be modified to drive a pulley which moves a cable. The invention uses just such a pulley and cable drive to rotate the gate sections. The motor driven cable is routed around a pulley atop each corner support post, so that when the motor is activated by the remote control, all four gate sections simultaneously change their positions. Moreover, since garage door opener motors are inherently reversible, the pulleys and gate sections can be rotated in both directions.
An additional feature of the invention is the provision for manual rotation of the gate sections if, for some reason such as loss of power, the motor is inoperative. This is accomplished by using the motor to rotate drive shafts on each corner post, which are actually independent of the gates. These drive shafts pass freely through the hollow vertical end tubing of the gate sections or through collars attached to the gate sections and are attached to bottom plates located below the corner of the gate sections, but not to the gate sections themselves. Each of these bottom plates has a yoke type structure attached at a location offset from the drive shaft, and with the bottom edge of the gate section resting in the yoke, any rotation of the drive shaft also rotates the gate section. Thus, when the motor rotates the drive shafts, all the gate sections also rotate. However, if the power fails, the operator needs only to lift each gate section out of its yoke on the bottom plate and rotate the gate section around the axis of the drive shaft into the desired position. This can be done completely independent of the drive shaft, the pulleys, and the motor.
The present invention thereby furnishes a dual operating system which can be operated either by remote controlled power or manually if that is required.